In search of immigrant justice

The strong anti-immigration sentiment in America has spouted many myths about why people flee their native countries to come here. And Lisa Laurel Weinberg has heard them all.

The biggest one, she said, is the perception that shiftless, lazy immigrants enter our borders for all the free stuff — the generous welfare benefits and EBT cards that will enable them to live high off the hog.

"It's a myth that they come here to live off the system," said Weinberg, an immigration and political asylum lawyer who lives in Worcester. "I've yet to represent an immigrant who, once they got permission to work, didn't get a job. Or two or three of them."

Monday, Weinberg heads to a remote desert town in New Mexico called Artesia, where an influx of young Central American women and children are housed in a makeshift detention center after fleeing countries plagued by gang violence, rape and other abuses. She's among a group of lawyers from the American Immigration Lawyers Association who will provide pro bono representation to people pleading for asylum in what the president called a humanitarian emergency.

Most of us have never heard of Artesia. Weinberg believes that will change.

Last week, a coalition of civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was violating the immigrants' rights to due process as it fast tracks deportations. The lawsuit is just the latest criticism of the Artesia detention center, the focus of complaints ranging from unsanitary conditions and inadequate food to appalling legal treatment of the detainees.

"There are 700 women and children there with no legal help," Weinberg said.

"It's a really serious situation. The justice system isn't working and we're trying to secure some basic rights for these folks."

An immigration lawyer for 14 years, Weinberg noted that many of the women and children in Artesia have compelling cases for asylum. Most of them are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, the murder capital of the world. She said some of the children are fleeing forced recruitment into violent gangs, while many of their mothers have faced threats, domestic violence and sexual assault.

Regardless, federal officials have stepped up the pace of processing and deporting the immigrants. The suit claims officials are restricting communication between detainees in Artesia and those on the outside, including their lawyers; coercing women and children to relinquish their rights; and prejudging asylum cases by rigging the system.

The suit also claimed that the United States is trying to send a warning to potential immigrants — don't come here.

Last week, an editorial in The New York Times called on President Barack Obama to suspend all deportations from Artesia until the system allows a fair hearing to every detainee seeking asylum.

"The urgency of 'deterrence' messaging and damping a political crisis can't supersede the Constitution and the requirements of asylum law," the editorial argued.

Weinberg agreed.

"This is what America is supposed to be about — welcoming people to our shores who need help and safety," she said. "This whole thing is insane. People are fleeing for their lives. I just want to help as many people as possible and give them a chance to be heard. That's what asylum laws are for. We are better than this."

She said the stories she's heard about Artesia from other lawyers are so shocking that they remind her of the U.S.'s shameful internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

"We're embarrassed by that history," Weinberg said. "I think in the future we'll be embarrassed by this, too."